無餘供養
林鈺堂
有位弟子應我囑咐尋得精美的二十一度母唐卡給我供奉。等我問起詳情，才告知是很貴重的，並且還說：古德有很多都對上師做無餘供養，自己所做還差得很遠。
所謂「無餘供養」就是將自身所擁有的一切都獻給上師，毫無保留。古德輩所以如此做，都是因為對上師完全信仰，並且有決心要完全依止上師，投入修行的生涯。
現代人能投入修行的很少；能令弟子有完全信仰而願完全依止的上師更少。雖聽聞過有西藏佛弟子對他的上師如此供養，但也只是做個樣子；其師只留下一樣供品，其餘皆立即賜回，只是用這樣的形式來成全弟子做過「無餘供養」的功德。
對真正修行者而言，理財是麻煩事。做為上師，我不期待、也不希望弟子做「無餘供養」。我希望真正想出離世俗來專修的弟子，能多把錢財留做自己修行生活的資糧，而以純正的行持以及將來成就、渡眾的果德做為無上的供養三寶。
難得有人把「無餘供養」當一回事來提出，所以有感而發，略抒己懷。
二○一八年八月二十日
亞洲弘法行之前日
養和齋 於加州
No-Remainder Offering
Yutang Lin
Upon my request a disciple looked for a fine Thangka of 21 Taras for me to set up on my altar. Later, when I, out of curiosity, asked about the details of the acquisition, only then he revealed to me that the cost was dearly, and he mentioned further that what he has done are far inferior to what ancient sages accomplished when they made No-remainder Offering to their Gurus.
″No-remainder Offering″ refers to the deed of a disciple when he offers all his belongs to his Guru, without leaving any remainder. Some ancient sages performed this deed because they had complete faith in the Guru and also had the determination to follow the Guru′s guidance exactly in devoting their lives solely to Dharma practices and activities.
Nowadays, very few people can devote themselves completely to practicing Dharma; and Gurus, who can inspire complete faith in disciples to the extent that the disciples will follow the Guru completely, are even rarer. Even though I did learn of some Tibetan Buddhist made such offering to his Guru; nevertheless, it was only symbolic—the Guru kept only one item of offering, and immediately bestowed all the rest back to the disciple; he simply used such a formality to help his disciple earned the merits of having accomplished ″No-remainder Offering″.
To genuine Dharma practitioners, managing material gains is a burden. As a Guru, I don’t expect nor wish disciples to make ″No-remainder Offering″ to me. I hope that disciples, who genuinely aspire to renounce worldly engagements so as to devote their lives solely to Dharma practices and activities, will keep more personal possessions to themselves as resources for their own Dharma lives, and instead, use their pure Dharma practices and activities and the merits born of their future accomplishments in realization of attainments and salvation of sentient beings to make unsurpassable offerings to the Triple Gems.
Since it is rather rare that someone would mention seriously about ″No-remainder Offering″, it touched my mind to the extent that I wrote about my thoughts on this topic for all to share.
Written in Chinese and translated into English on August 20, 2018
The day before I begin my Dharma Tour to Asia
El Cerrito, California
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